Wichita Falls Man Arrested After Attempting to Pay Taxes With Folded Up $1 Bills [VIDEO]
Wichita County Sheriff's Office
Tim Norris of Wichita Falls wanted to protest his high taxes. His chosen method didn’t end quite the way he had planned.
On January 28th, Norris went into the Wichita County Tax Office location at the Courthouse Annex on Scott Ave. According to various local media reports, Norris attempted to pay the tax bill - about $500 - with $1 bills. The twist, or fold you could say, is that the bills were folded, origami style.
I spoke with Norris by phone briefly on Wednesday. He says that only around $50 of the money was folded. County officials told The Times Record News that virtually all of the money was brought in this way. Officials also claim Norris became verbally abusive with one of the tax office employees and that is when he was asked to leave.
Norris told News Talk 1290 that he was not verbally abusive but was ‘vocal’ and simply wanted to make a statement of protest with the money, though he never intended to use quite so much of the folded money in the payment. Circumstances involving a prior visit to the same office to pay for an automobile registration left him with less cash than needed, so he was forced to use some of the folded money to make up the deficit.
According to county officials as reported to the Times Record News, Smythe called for a Wichita County Deputy to remove Norris when he refused to leave on his own. The incident ended with Norris in cuffs, charged with resisting arrest and criminal trespass. Norris has been banned from courthouse property. Norris also claims to have been tasered during the arrest. Wichita County Sheriff David Duke told the Times Record News the deputy’s taser was not deployed during the incident.
Originally, Norris had agreed to sit down with News Talk 1290 for a video interview on Friday, but canceled his appearance with us late Thursday. Calls to Wichita County Tax Collector Tommy Smythe have not yet been returned.
Below is an interview Norris gave to local NBC affiliate KFDX on Thursday.